xiv, 289 pages : 24 cm

"During her years as a consultant to the Italian government agency responsible for combating organized crime, Letizia Paoli was given unparalleled insider access to the confessions by pentiti (literally, repentants), former mafia operatives who had turned. This mafia "hard core" came primarily from the two largest and most influential Southern Italian mafia associations, known as Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta, each composed of about one hundred mafia families. The sheer volume of these confessions, numbering in the hundreds, and the detail they contained enabled the Italian government to effectively break up the Italian mafia in one of the most dramatic law enforcement successes in modern times. Paoli draws on these same documents to provide a clinically accurate portrait of mafia behavior, motivations, and structure."--Jacket

Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-274) and indexes

Mafia associations and ruling bodies -- Status and fraternization contracts -- Secrecy and violence -- Multiplicity of goals and functions -- Mafia, state, and society

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